The Random Life: What did I miss?

Spooktacular - a WEG GHOSTBUSTERS clone! I many actually spring for the hardcopy here, knowing full well that I'll never get to actually play it - but nevertheless, I have ideas! 

Someone found some classic cartoon characters Dungeons and Dragon stats from a very old issue of Dragon magazine. I love how they're portrayed as lords of chaos.   

Since the D&D group is taking a break over the summer, I've turned my rpg attentions to a little side project. I was looking for something different than D&D when inspiration hit. The pic is a hint. 

Wonderful Wednesdays

Wonderful Wednesdays

Lynda's Rock and Roll Fantasy (from an 1980 TV special). This is pretty wild and fun stuff. 

Last Session

A couple of photos from the last session of the term before the summer break. Here is how it all looked from my perspective.



Close up of the final slime pit with the Otyugh. Its pear and grape sauce with graham wafers as the floating mushrooms. Wish I'd taken a pic of this with more of the paper Minis.

Wonderful Wednesdays

The Space Princess look

Tazar's Wand of Voltaic Force

This foot long wand of gnomeish make is not a magical item and will not be affected by anti-magic fields. A crystalline battery inside holds a temporary charge and when the wand is manipulated, it will release a warn light equal to that of a torch, a sparkling light show, or it can be used as a weapon, capable of electrocuting people by touch, and even short distances away.

Once the crystal's charge is spent, it must be hooked, via copper cords, to a 1' long box lined with rabbit fur. A copper rod runs down the middle and is attached to a crank. This crank must be wound for at least two hours to fully charge the wand (which is enough to turn a Long Rest into a Short rest).

Damage: Touch, 2d6 electrical damage. Range 1'. Bolt d10 electrical damage. Range 20', Line.
Resistance: Those affected can make a Con saving throw roll vs DC=To Hit roll. If they fail the roll, they will not suffer any extra damage, but they will fall prone for d4 rounds.

Charges: 10 (full charge)
Torch Light - 1 charge per hour
Sparkle/Light Effects - 1 charge to activate, 2 charges per hour to run
Touch Shock - 2 Charges (per round)
Bolt Shock - 3 Charges

Halfling Fork Sword

Aka: Sausage Sword, Hob Fork,

I stumbled across this on some local buy-and-sell site and immediately decided that it had to become a traditional Halfling weapon.

Approximately 2' long.
Damage: D4 piercing damage. If fork has been heated in a flame and/or is covered in boiling gristle or flaming marshmallow it then does +1 Fire/Heat damage.
Range: Melee
On a natural 20, the weapon will ensnared the opponent's (melee) weapon. Make an Advantaged (for welder of the fork) opposed Strength check. If the welder of the fork wins, then their opponent is now disarmed and their weapon falls 10' away in a random direction.

Dwarf Cannon

Last, but certainly not least, Gorg the Ogren Fighter. Gorg's player was the quietest and I think, the last to click on how roleplaying games work. Once he did he added a lot of firepower and humour to the game. His most common request was for guns, which I'm not opposed to (especially if we go pirate), but its not something I wanted to introduce right away. Instead I came up with this, the Dwarven Bore Cannon.

This weapon is fashioned using the cold forging techniques known only to the Dwarves of the northern wastes. It is carried and fired under the arm, which requires great strength (Min STR 16+. See Requirements and Penalties).

Each piece of ammunition, called a 'Shot', is individually packed with an ammunition type packed with an explosive called 'firesalt''. Different ammunition have different effects, but beyond the frozen fields of the Dwarflands, they are very hard to find. Individuals shots can end up costing mush more than the cannon itself. Only characters who have +4 Proficiency, an INT of 12+, and training will know how to make and pack Shot.

Damage: variable. Average shot does 2d8 Fire and Bludgeoning Damage. Roll Dex save vs DC(=To Hit Role of the shot) to take 1/2 damage.

Range: 50', explosion affects all within 10' circle.

Requirements and Penalties: Player must have the Cannon Proficiency in order to use the device properly. Characters have never see one used before will have no idea what the device is or how to it works. Requires a STR of 16+ to weld, or else all attacks are made at Disadvantage.

 Loading and packing a shot requires one full Action (can only be fired every second round).

Rolling a 1: if a natural 1 is rolled at any time while handling a Bore, especially in combat, consult the following chart.
Roll D10
1-3       Dud - Ammunition is ruined and requires one Action to remove safely.

3-4       Missfire - ammunition is still live, but did not fire. Must be removed safely (DEX + Proficiency save vs DC 12) or else see Explosion! see below.

5-6       All Quite - Nothing happens. Make a missfire roll to remove shot safely. Also has a 25% chance of exploding on its own at the end of d4 rounds.

7-8       Wonky Shot - Fired ammunition spins off in a random direction.
        Roll D6, shot goes ...
         1    90 right
         2    90 left
         3    45 right
         4    45 left
         5    D4x10 feet directly ahead.
         6    Straight Up

9          Slide - Live and lit a Shot slides out of the barrel and lands at the shooter's feet. All characters within 10' must make a DEX DC roll of 12 to take half damage. Shooter must make a DEX DC roll of 15.

10        Explosion! - Shot explodes in the barrel. Does 2d10 damage to all within 10' radius unless a DEX DC roll of 14 is made. Shooter must make a DEX DC roll of 16. Weapon is destroyed,

Wonderful Wednesdays

Lynda Carter at the 2018 Met Gala. Hail to the Queen! 

The Black Tuba

Stephen the Bard loves getting into trouble, so I decided to give him something to get into trouble with ....

The Black Tuba
There are many legends as to how this terrible instrument came to be. Some said it was created by a jealous Halfling fortune teller to get revenge on the bard who' spurned her. Some say it was once welded by a great Hob bard who became sick and corrupted by evil. Others say it was bestowed upon a Halfling family by some unnamed dark power after they had performed some terrible service on its behalf.  

The tuba is not black per say, but is it badly tarnished and will never remain polished for long. When a special valve is played, the instrument releases a deep and somber note that will damage all those who hear it. This 'Death Note' can be played at any time, but costs a spell-slot.

Death Note
This note can be played by any spell-casting Bard character and requires a spell-slot to use. The death note does d6 damage per level of spell-slot used (ie, Death Note cast using a third level spell-slot would do 3d6 damage). Damage is necrotic. Range 20' cone. Characters caught in the blast are also rendered deaf for d4 rounds unless a CON Saving Throw is made (vs the Bard's DC).

If the damage from a Death Note kills an opponent (reduces their hp to 0 or below), the tuba will suck in the departing spirit of the dead. The CR (or level, in the case of an npc) of the absorbed opponent can now be added to either: to the Bard's Magic DC, OR the Bard's AC for one round.

The Tuba can not absorb creatures and monsters that do not possess spirits (skeletons, zombies, vampires, golemns etc. DM's discretion). It will still wound those vulnerable to necrotic damage.

The tuba can absorb up to a total of 10 Levels/Combat Ratings. The bard can, a Bonus Action, choose to put all, or some of that number into their Magic DC or AC (not both) each round. The bonus lasts for one round only and once the points are spent, they are gone until the Bard can absorb new spirits into the tuba.

As this instrument destroys living spirits, using it constitutes an alignment violation for all Good characters.

Dragonborn Spearsword

Scuffy the silver Dragonborn Paladin's goals have always been simple: Kill all monsters. In aid of this, I gave him a 7' tall naginata or glaive that I dubbed a 'spearsword', the traditional weapon of a Dragonborn warrior.

Damage: 2D6 slashing.
Range 10'.
Block: Adds +1 to AC (see Restrictions).
Restrictions: Must be welded two handed. Must have STR 17 or more to use properly, otherwise all attack rolls are made at Disadvantage and AC bonus does not apply.

The Rod of Varying Lengths

Peter the Thief's player has offered a lot of background for the character, including the possibility that he's royalty from a far-off kingdom. I was going to give him a ring that hints at this lineage, but ultimately I decided that would be quite the specific item to find in a side-quest. Then I started thinking about what sort of item might be useful to a thief. I really like this item, which may or may not have been inspired by the Ranger Pikes from Babylon 5 (Marcus lives!).

Rod of Varying Lengths
At first this item appears to be a thick rod of twisted wood about thirty centimetres long. When physically twisted, the rod will lengthen, becoming longer, but thinner the more it is twisted. The rod lengthens equally from both ends, meaning the person doing the twisting will remain in the middle of the lengthening object.

Baton Length

With a few twists, the rod can be lengthened into a baton or club. It can also be lengthened into a short staff (1.5m) or a long staff (2m). Beyond two meters, the rod is no longer rigid enough to be used as a weapon, but can be used as a thick cable for lengths up to 10m. Beyond 10 meters, the rod becomes flexible and rope-like and can be spooled out a full length of  20m.

The rod is a magical item and quite durable, having an AC of 12 and requiring 20hp of damage to sever, regardless of length.

As a baton or staff, the rod does d8 bludgeoning damage. Range 5'. Skilled welders (those with Simple Weapon proficiency) can quickly twist the rod, causing it to shoot out. This allows the welder to hit the rod at an enemy up to 10' away.

Once twisted to a desired length, the rod will remain at that size until twisted back, or if the welder rolls a Natural 1 while using it, at which time it will instantly snap back to rod size (automatically untying itself from any item or anchor). Twisting the item to a different length requires a Bonus Action.

Bladed Bow

Last night marked the end of regular play for the year. Next session we level up to 3rd and then we break for the summer. We'll be restarting next September.

The adventure ended (for now) in a slime pit with a pitched battle with a rapidly mutating otyugh. When it was vanquished, they dove into the slime to retrieve the lost dragon's horde.

They came up with some items I'd customed for each of the characters which they were suppose to use on the real Big Boss, but they'd spent too much time horsing around with Kandida's Miscellaneous Potion. We ended up with a fur covered thief, but didn't get around to the final fight.

Harrod, Gygax bless him, was never cut out to be the archer. A Half-Elf Paladin, he had poor stats and no predilection or skills to be an archer, but that's how the player ran him. He also happened to be a pretty good strategist and emerged as a real leader to the group, and I wanted to reward that. I'm adapting the Divine Archer archetype into a Paladin Oath of the Straight Arrow, but I wanted to give the player something he could use effectively if he wanted to come out of the back rows every now and again. Its not much, really but it packs better damage that he'd been doing with a regular bow.

Damage: Melee d10 slashing damage. Range d10 piercing.

Wonderful Wednesdays

It has become something of a life goal to find this on vinyl.